Thursday 15 August 2013 10.40 EDT
First published on Thursday 15 August 2013 10.40 EDT

It begins at a wedding. Dave is jilted at the altar when Alex gets cold feet and runs off with a jock on rollerblades who has halted the ceremony. "Even I think rollerblading is gay," says best man Max, "and I slept with a dude last night." But despite all this opening anguish, Happy Endings is a classic friendship sitcom about six middle-class Chicagoans on the cusp of turning 30. None of them have kids, two are a married couple, one is gay, and they are all affected by the fallout from this non-wedding: Alex and Dave were supposed to solidify the clique by becoming its second married couple; instead, their breakup threatens its future.

The 13-episode first season follows Alex and Dave as they change from lovers to friends and the group readjusts around them. This leads to some richly uncomfortable moments, such as when Dave brings his new girlfriend to a group dinner. Alex can't help sniping – not least because her replacement is still in her teens – and ends up with a glass of wine in her face.

But there's never any real danger of the former lovebirds failing to make their friendship work because, well, they're just too nice. This is the point about Happy Endings and it's surprisingly refreshing: it presents all its characters with plenty of affection. Max may be a pudgy drifter who wears his pyjama top to the local bar, but he's also funny and at ease with who he is. "I look like a chubby Chris O'Donnell," he says, explaining why he's so irresistible to members of the same sex, "which in Chicago is like a regular Chris O'Donnell." And yes, Jane and Brad are an attractive married couple who enjoy each other's company (and bodies), but there's also something slightly subversive about them: supposedly alpha male Brad has a mysterious weakness for luxury spa treatments, while Jane always gets on better with "the guys" than he does.

The show's standout character, though, is perennial singleton Penny. She could have been a painful cliche, but instead she gets all the edgiest storylines, at one point falling for a guy with the surname Hitler. She tries to imagine herself marrying him, but even going double-barrelled isn't much help because her own surname is Hartz. "Penny Hartz-Hitler? Yeah, that's a winner."

In another episode, Penny turns herself into a hipster to impress a trendy type whose friends only enjoy things ironically. As a worried Penny heads out for an evening with this horrible bunch of poseurs, Max offers some rather superb advice: "If someone says something you don't understand, just say: 'I'm over it.'" This neatly underlines what's so likable about the Happy Endings gang: they're young and relatively privileged urbanites, but they're not too cool. Dave mispronounces Ke$ha, Jane makes her own candied walnuts, and for some reason they all keep mentioning 90s stars such as Neve Campbell, Liz Phair and Lori Petty. This knowing but affectionate nostalgia is surprisingly infectious.

Sadly, Happy Endings was cancelled by ABC after its third season because its loyal following never quite grew big enough to sustain a primetime slot on a major network. This first season box set is not without its flaws: the writers sometimes fall back on tired sitcom devices such as flying in parents who – gasp! – don't know their son is gay; and the dialogue can cross the line from smart to try-hard, especially when Penny's semi-funny habit of saying "amahzing" is turned into a fully irritating catchphrase. But even when your affection waivers, the show, like any bunch of friends, always manages to pull you back in again.